Abstract
Capitalism is a system that was constructed through economic and philosophical thinking by Adam Smith. As the noted father of capitalism, Smith envisioned a model in which morality could be achieved through an economic-based design. Today, social enterprises embrace the frictions of making decisions between profit and purpose, business and society, and stability and change. Making decisions in these tension-filled dimensions requires a certain amount of professional moral courage and a willingness to act in a virtuous manner when competing emotions are evident. The purpose of this dissertation in practice was to use a mixed methods research study to benchmark the strength of professional moral courage with United States-based social enterprise leaders and then conduct qualitative interviews to explore how moral courage was used when making decisions involving economic and social value. The mixed methods study results benchmarked a professional moral strength among the surveyed social enterprise leaders and provided insights into how these leaders viewed moral courage and used it when addressing economic and social scenarios. While tensions existed, many viewed the challenges as achieving an equilibrium between the three frictions by engaging diverse stakeholder perspectives and experiences. Each led with a purpose-first mindset. Based on the findings, a moral courage-centered decision-making process was created, along with a moral sentiments trilogy to build moral courage capacity within the stakeholders. Moral courage becomes critical in leadership models and education programs for current and future social enterprise leaders. Keywords: moral courage, social enterprises, professional moral courage, social entrepreneurship, stakeholder capitalism, moral sentiments